Since my daughter was 2 years old (she's 30 now), we have been sharing history and resources in a land-based activist community. Our lineage as Black Americans descended from chattel slavery meant that we were interrupting cycles of generations being forced off the Land.

So I learned everything about acquiring and stewarding land from my comrades in community so that I could create the environment where my lineage could begin to repair and gather themselves.

Lofty goals, I was often told, as I witnessed what I wanted for my people experienced in reality. How could it be lofty, idealistic and unrealistic to want land where Afro-indigenous descendants of chattel slavery (D.o.C.S.) could live free from a bank mortgage, with solar electricity, water collected from springs, gardens and orchards, goats and chickens and daily shared family dinner and weekly community potlucks!?

But the systems were not set up to make my life goals easy. Had I not been in relationship with Canadian Jewish lovers of me, I would never have secured the first 3 acres of land where I could imagine hosting my family events and gatherings.

I dreamed of collectively building the basic infrastructures that kept the communities I contributed to functional. The shelter, electrical power, composting toilet system and propane tanks for heating and cooking were simple.

That was 9 years ago, just following my mother's death, and my heartbreak that community that I gave my love and life energy to had not built a bridge and opening to welcome my mother and my family into the community!

Fast forward to 3 and 1/2 years ago, just months before the official announcement of the pandemic, I connected with my partner who wanted to hand over all of his possessions to my reparations efforts! A home in the city, a farm in the country and a business to sustain them both!!!!

Though there are no strings attached and the offer is genuine, there is no simple to receive "properties" bound up in economic and legal systems. He has two mortgages and the business is still tied to his former business and romantic partner!

But I'm not daunted by reality, though I am empathetic and concerned! No one gives away all that they have created with nothing left to care for themselves. I register this as imbalanced and offer to lead him in the process of reparations as we negotiate legal and financial matters.

I'm interested in him as a person and delighted that he wants to join the movement for reparations. But this is village work and the pandemic left us isolated and me being the sole educator, companion and friend of my benefactor created greater imbalances.

I could not take on the mortgages and run the business by myself, so I put a call out to family and friends whom I believed would be interested. I even reached out to community members who might want to invest in the business and the movement to liberate the lands from mortgages.

In my mental health states and my partner's, we have alienated would-be collaborators including my daughter and her husband. And what was functioning well during the pandemic, has come collapsing down on us, even as we provide sanctuary and community to the most marginalized people.

We are currently 3 months behind on the 2 mortgages, and the business didn't pick back up to catch us up. The bill collectors are calling, the farm electricity has been shut off and my niece and partner are sheltering with me in the city where I have my living room print studio.

If you have it to give and you value my work and survival, please contribute to this campaign. Share it with your networks and keep checking back here for updates!

Thanks for reading to all who made it this far.

In radical solidarity,

Valencia